“Tell Me Everything” is a deeply moving memoir by actress Minka Kelly, detailing her challenging childhood and inspiring journey to success. Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kelly faced instability, unhealthy relationships, and worked as a nightclub dancer at 17 to support herself. Despite these challenges, she trained as a surgical nurse in Los Angeles while pursuing her dream of becoming an actress.

The memoir explores her family struggles, attempts to reconcile with estranged parents, and her remarkable personal growth through therapy. Raised by a single mother who was a stripper and battled addiction, Kelly's life was often chaotic. She endured poor living conditions and experienced abandonment for a year. Despite these hardships, Kelly found closure with her mother, which was heartwarming.

Throughout her challenges, Kelly persisted and eventually became a successful professional and actress. Her memoir is heartfelt and unflinching, capturing her courageous journey of healing from trauma. It offers a raw and honest look at her life, inspiring many with her strength and resilience.

Overall, “Tell Me Everything” is a powerful story of overcoming adversity and finding one's way.


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Admittedly I didn't know very much about Minka prior to reading. I loved her in FNL, and envied her when she was dating Trevor Noah. And yet... reading this brought me into her world. The ways in which our pasts can shape our future. The ways we learn to build something beautiful from the rubble of difficult. I am always in awe when someone so public lays their world bare for us, and this was no different.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this title.

I have been a fan of Minka since I first saw her as Lyla Garrity on FNL.

Hearing her story, and how much she has overcome and grown as a human, and claimed her power was completely inspiring. I am not only a fan of her talent and work, but now of her life.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review*

A great thriller - I would recommend it! Minka Kelly is great!

This is a moving, heartbreaking and brave book. I wish the author took more time to heal and have some more distance from her trauma in order to assess everything that has happened to her. This book will make you think amd interrogate the exploitation of women and its long term effects, I found the book compelling, Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced readers copy.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

tl/dr: this memoir is heartbreakingly beautiful.

Giving star ratings to a memoir feels odd, so they will all be getting 5stars, but wow. This one. I have been a huge FNL fan so when I found out Minka Kelly was writing a book I knew I wanted to read it, but I did not know what I was getting myself into. Please please please check the trigger warnings before starting this one - I'll leave as many as I can below. But I will say Minka is incredibly resilient, her story is brave & beautiful and I can not believe how much she has had to go through in life but has come out on the other end so strong & growing & learning still it seems. There was not a ton of FNL content (like one chapter but it was amazing!) but this is well worth the read (or listen as she narrates the audiobook) to just take witness to her life.


tw/cw: child abuse, addiction, parent abandonment, domestic violence, and I'm sure more I can't remember

I don't know if Minka Kelly had a ghost writer helping her, but either way, this memoir is one of the best I've read in a long time - really just beautifully written. She talks about her experiences, which I was not expecting to be so heartbreaking, but also talks about how she views them now and how she was able to get a more complete picture of her life (and her mother) from reading her mother's journals. She talks about her regrets, the challenges she's faced, the breaks she's gotten, and more.

Check your trigger warnings if you're planning on listening to this one. There's a lot of talk about child abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, and drug use.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Tell Me Everything by Minka Kelly. Pub Date: May 2, 2023. Rating: 4 stars. It's always difficult to rate memoirs because it is someone's personal story. But, this memoir was engaging, full of detail and emotion, and a beautiful blend of understanding of a tumultuous childhood. I became a fan of Minka Kelly through the TV show Friday Night Lights. I absolutely adored her character and thought she played the part well, but I had no idea she had such a rocky childhood, an interesting relationship with her mother and a non-present father figure until later in life. How this woman has risen above the chaos of her childhood to become successful is beyond me, but I am so glad she did because she is a wonderful actress. Her voice really shines through in this one. Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review. #tellmeeverything #netgalley

I loved Minka Kelly on Friday Night Lights and Parenthood but knew little about her real life, so was excited to get approved to read this one early! This was a great memoir that I flew through in a day because some of the stories were just so unbelievable that I had to keep reading. It was a little hard to follow at times, but her writing is beautiful and you can tell she's done a lot of work on herself to overcome her past. Her story was gritty and heartbreaking, but somehow still hopeful. She was able to show us the dysfunction, toxicity, and grief in her life without portraying herself as a victim, and I think her story will have an impact on a lot of people. I'd definitely recommend this book, and I am excited to see what the author does next, whether on the screen or not! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Heartbreaking and beautiful. Minka Kelly did a wonderful job writing her memoir. I was very impressed.

If you are a fan of Minka Kelly and are familiar with their work such as Friday Night Lights this is definitely a read you will enjoy. As someone who is not familiar with those she has acted on I still enjoyed the read. As always, I enjoy reading memoirs and getting a glimpse into someone else's life and story.

The book primarily focuses on her upbringing and a crazy backstory that has brought her to her current point in life. It is honest, raw and worth the time to read.

I was pleasantly surprised by this memoir. It was heartbreaking to read what Minka went through in her childhood. I find her inspiring and have a new found respect for her. She was so brave to share her story and I’m sure many readers can relate to what she went through. Not only was her story compelling but I thought the book was beautifully written. I have read a lot of books this year and this made my top five. After reading this book, I think it is safe to say that Minka is the perfect example of “do not judge a book by its cover.” This memoir did not disappoint!

I LOVED this one. I didn't expect that good of a book from Minka Kelly. Why? I didn't know she was a writer. I didn't know she had a past like that. I didn't know any of it. But the respect I have for her now. I couldn't put this one down. It was just fantastic, I highly recommend it to all.

Really heartbreaking, but beautiful. So glad to peel back the curtain on her life, the story was something I would have never expected.

Is having a fucked up childhood a prerequisite to becoming a celebrity? Minka’s story was so sad. I only knew of her as Lyla Garrity on the hit TV show Friday Night Lights, my comfort show that I turn on any time I am sick or not feeling well. Let me tell you, her life was not as rich as Lyla’s in any way, shape, or form. This book has basically every single trigger warning in the book so if you want to look them up, do yo’ thang, girl. It’s amazing that she was able to drum up so much success for herself after the multiple hells she went through. This was a great memoir.

An interesting memoir. I really loving reading celebrity memoirs, especially when I’m familiar with their work. This gives so many behind the scenes of her life and resonated with me.

4 resilient stars
“Damaged people damage people.”

I tend to avoid celebrity biographies, as many are poorly written. Tell Me Everything by Minka Kelly is one I’d recommend because of her honest transparency and resiliency.

Actress Minka Kelly grew up with a single mom who was a stripper. Dysfunctional with a capital D – abusive boyfriends, drugs, a lot of alcohol, homelessness. Minka learned survival skills at a young age. “Showing fear was the fastest way to mess things up.” “He was always careful, though, not to leave marks. He used to brag about that.”

Minka’s writing is strong, using vivid verbs. “Even as I try to craft a healthy and safe container in which love and tenderness might bloom, that old wrecking ball of learned behaviors keeps crashing into whatever I try to build, raising dust that clings to my hair and hurts my eyes, splintering my effort to smithereens.” Kudos to Minka Kelly for laying out hard things with honesty and resilience and doing the hard work of therapy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

From the dedication alone I knew I was going to love this book.
“To all the wounded inner children out there, looking for protection and healing. I see you”

I was familiar with Minka through her work on Friday Night Lights and other movies. I was so excited to get the arc for her memoir!

While I really enjoyed this book, I was bummed by the lack of behind the scenes from FNL. It was maybe 10 pages max. No inside scoop about the show or her toxic relationship with her co-star.

This was definitely more about her past and overcoming it. From toxic/abusive parents to relationships, abandonment, and addict parents - she’s gone through it all! There is a lot of healing and growth.

I was surprised to learn that she was an operating room nurse before her acting career took off!

Even if you aren’t familiar with Minka, I recommend this great memoir. You see the trials and tribulations she goes through and continue to root for her throughout the book. She is truly as beautiful inside as she is outside.